The Churchill Series – May 26, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

On May 21, 1952 during Prime Minister's Question Time Labour Member Colonel Lipton asked:

“Will the Prime Minister state which Commonwealth Governments have been invited to send observers to the British atom bomb tests in Australia?”

Churchill responded:

“None, sir.”

Lipton pressed just as we see members do now on C-SPAN’s replays of PM’s Question Time:

“Is it not desirable when the economic and other relationships between the Commonwealth countries are more disrupted than they have been, that they should be brought into consideration which would enable Commonwealth observers to be present?

May I ask the Prime Minister if he will condescend to answer that question?

If he is not interested in the matter, then of course he need not answer the question."

Churchill:

“It was after full consideration of all those points that I gave my somewhat comprehensive or rather exclusively comprehensive answer, ‘None, sir.’”

Modeling somewhat C-SPAN’s Question Time signoff I end with:

“And please join us again on Monday, May 29, for another edtion of The Churchill Series.”

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The Churchill Centre, Prime Minister's Questions.